How I Spent My Summer Vacation
by Arraydesign
Summary: One of the reasons Donna wants there to be a Molly Morello day.


_**How I Spent My Summer Vacation**_

Pre-series: way pre-series

Disclaimer: No… of course not… what were you thinking

Feedback: like jelly with peanut butter

One thing Donna appreciates about Molly Morello…

_**April 1991 **_

The bell rings, a jarring harsh buzzer, and as her students hastily grab their books and jostle out of the room she raises her voice over the din.

"Please read over Act 2 scenes 3 to 5 of Julius Caesar before your next class. Do not rely only on our in class reading to form your analysis of the scenes. I will expect your written response at the beginning of the next class so come prepared."

As the students file out she calls, "Donna Moss, could you see me for a minute before you leave?"

The blonde stops, casts a longing look over her shoulder at the boy pushing his way through the doorway, and trails up to the teacher's desk.

"Yes Mrs. Morello?"

"You are a smart girl Donna. You have an inquiring mind and a desire for knowledge, and I'd hate to see you get side lined."

"I don't know what you mean Mrs. Morello"

"Well, I may have over-estimated, Donna, but it seems to me you're not always present these days."

"I'm always here Mrs. Morello… I… I don't cut classes."

The teacher looks out the open door into the hall, where Freddie is lounging against the lockers chatting to Jody and Melissa.

Donna follows her gaze.

"Oh," she says looking down at the ground and flushing faintly pink, "Oh no, he doesn't like me like that really. I've just been helping him with his homework. He's not very organized." She looks furtively out the door, "I like helping other people."

Molly sighs inwardly at the girlish naiveté. She plays her next card.

"I want you to sign up for English AP Donna. You should start accumulating some college credits."

The blue grey eyes flick up to meet hers. "College credits?"

"You are going to college aren't you Donna? A bright girl like you?"

"Uh I guess. I mean it's a couple of years away…"

"Not that far really… you'll be a senior next year … and I'm starting an AP English course in September. It'll be early in the morning… before school… but I think you'd enjoy it Donna. You've got good writing skills and you do well in your other courses."

Donna's eyes widen.

"Intelligence is nothing to be ashamed of Donna. This will help prepare you for college. If your mark is good enough you'll actually get credit for first year English, and Donna, I know what you're capable of…I think you'll do well, and I think you'll enjoy the challenge. I think you could be good at this. You should look at the other AP courses that are being offered as well. Have a look at the American History that Mr. Pedersen is offering. I'm sure you could handle more than one."

"Oh, I'm really not sure Mrs. Morello. I mean… I don't really know what I'm going to do when I graduate."

"Well this is the time to start making plans Donna. Look at colleges, look at programs, apply for scholarships…think about your future. "

"Apply for scholarships? Honestly Mrs. Morello, I don't think my grades are that good…."

"Well, I think you are understating your academic achievements Donna, and scholarships are not all about grades. Your grade point average is high, you've been a section leader in the band, you've written for the school paper, you've volunteered at the lunch program and the reading program for the elementary school, you've worked part time, and you're on the volleyball team. You're a prime candidate for a scholarship."

"I'm not a good enough volleyball player. I'm not a starter."

"I didn't mean a sports scholarship, Donna. There are lots of scholarships out there…Most universities offer entrance scholarships, but there are also unions, companies, service organizations… Is your Dad a Rotarian, or an Elk? Lots of times they have scholarships… most times you have to write an essay… have some letters of recommendation..."

The girl looks a little doubtful. "You really think I could?"

"Of course you could!"

"Well, I'll think about it."

Molly pulls a sheet of paper from her desk. "Here's a reading list, if you want to get started over the summer."

Donna takes it tentatively. She glances over it. "I've already read some of these…"

"See? It's right up your alley."

She shrugs. "I'll think about it," she says again.

_**June**_

"Donna? I'm wondering if you've had time to think about AP English."

"Oh, I don't really know Mrs. Morello. I think it might take too much time…. And I'm not so sure I'm ready to do a college level course."

"Donna, I think you could do anything you put your mind to."

She blushes, her fair skin pinking right up through her pale blonde hair. "I really think you're overstating things Mrs. Morello…"

"Hey Donna!" Freddie calls from the hall, "Hurry up! David's got the car and we're all going to Micky D's for lunch!"

"Uh, I gotta go Mrs. Morello. Freddie's calling."

The teacher sighs. "He is indeed, Donna. But I want you to continue thinking about this course. Don't give up on it yet. Read some of that list over the summer. Things have a way of changing over July and August."

"Yes ma'am," she looks hurriedly over her shoulder to the door where Freddie is gesticulating impatiently, "I really do need to leave…"

The teacher shoos her away with her hand, "Go, have fun, be young."

Donna smiles widely, her eyes sparkle at the humour, "Yes Mrs. Morello," she say obediently before taking Freddie's outstretched hand and hurrying down the hall.

_**September**_

Towards the end of the lunch period she's prepping for the next morning's class, when she becomes aware of a presence, tentatively leaning against the doorway of the classroom.

"Donna! Good to see you! Did you have a good summer?"

A look of pain crosses the girl's pale face. She swallows, and straightens just a little against the open door.

" Ah…I changed my mind Mrs. Morello…. If it's not too late, I…..I think I'd like to be part of your AP class."

She looks at the teenaged girl, thin, freckled and just a little desolate around the eyes.

"Of course it's not too late Donna. It's never too late to try something new and," she smiles reassuringly, "This is actually the perfect time. First class is tomorrow at eight."

"Good, because I've thought about it a lot recently, and," she takes a deep breath, "I think you're right. I think I could be good at this."

The din from the hallway is getting louder, she hears a girl giggling just outside the room. Donna's hair screens her eyes, and she nervously grips her notebooks tighter to her chest.

Molly Morello steps out into the hall, where Freddie is pressing Jody up against the lockers, stroking her hair out of her eyes.

"Okay folks, enough with the public displays… on your way to class please"

Jody giggles, and ducks out from under Freddie's arm, kisses him lightly on the cheek and heads off down the hall.

"Mr. Briggs? Don't you have a class to go to?"

The boy rolls his eyes.

"Yes, Mrs. Morello."

"Get a move on… you don't want a late slip on the first day back"

"Yeah… I'm just getting my books…." He says as he turns to rummage in his locker.

She hears a sigh of relief from the classroom behind her. She turns back to see Donna's grey blue eyes hard as stones. Molly has taught high school for thirty years and raised two daughters of her own. A thesis statement couldn't make this situation any clearer. She's had years of practice ignoring high school drama and refocusing teen age energy.

"So, did you do some reading over the summer, Donna?" she continues, as if the interruption had never happened.

There's a moment while the teenager shifts gears, shifts focus, becomes, just marginally more adult. "Well, some of them I knew already… Pride and Prejudice, Great Expectations… I didn't know anything about Wide Sargasso Sea, but Jane Eyre is one of my favorite books, so Sargasso was kind of cool, uh… oh yeah, I read Romeo and Juliet over the summer…. And I watched that movie… you know… by Zefferelli… over at the students' union at the college…. I went with my sister" she continues needlessly.

"And what did you think?"

"About the movie? It was astonishingly beautiful. I'd like to go to Italy someday… my mother's family is from there, you know… somewhere in the northern part…I can't remember the name of the village, but my nonna…"

"No. I meant the play."

Donna rolls her eyes, "Ohhh…" There's a bitter tone in her voice. "Well, Juliet was stupid. She should have known better. She shouldn't have slept with him….And Romeo was a creep. One minute he loves this other girl, Rosaline, but she won't sleep with him, so then he sees Juliet, and what do you know? The next minute he falls in love with Juliet! And he can't live without her? It's a good thing he dies, because you know the next minute he'd just fall in love with someone else."

There is silence for a moment. They can both hear laughter from down the hall.

"Well you know," says Molly Morello carefully, "They were both very young. Just barely teenagers. Younger than you even."

"That's what makes it so idiotic. They could have had their whole lives."

The teacher smiles in sympathy. "You're right. That's also what makes it so tragic. They aren't experienced enough to realize that first love isn't always forever love. We'd like to think it is, but truthfully, that hardly ever happens. When we're young we fall into love; we fall out of love; we make mistakes; we misjudge people….. it's part of learning to be an adult. The tragedy is of their wasted lives…..but that's also the romantic and dramatic appeal… thwarted love"

"Oh. Well, but that's what I mean….they were kind of stupid really, weren't they?" she says sadly, "I mean if they'd just said something about it… well I think their families would have come around in the long run… and that priest… he really drove me crazy…"

"But, if there was no opposition to their marriage what would we have? They hardly knew each other, really. Imagine Juliet at forty, with half a dozen children, squabbling with Romeo about dinner with the in-laws."

Donna smiles for the first time. "It does seem kind of ridiculous…"

The teacher smiles back. "You see, without the conflict, where's the human condition? Without the push and pull of reason and emotion, where's the drama? … … and really… love is never simple…" she glances out the door as Freddie locks his locker and strolls insouciantly down the hall, "is it Donna?"

She shakes her hair back behind her shoulders and looks the teacher straight in the eye. "No Mrs. Morello, it's not. It's complicated."

"So, I'll see you tomorrow morning?"

She smiles again with a little more confidence and nods. "I'll see you then," she says as she walks out into the hall.


End file.
